Transition Year Conversation -
May 2007 ...
Outreach - The Great
Commission
There
are two questions or topics that you and your congregational leaders are invited
to be in conversation about this month. One - on stewardship - can be found on
the opposite side of this page. The other concerns outreach.
The Great Commission - combined with the Great Commandment (to love God and
others) - is often considered to be the core of what is means to be the church
and of what it means to be evangelical. To think of others first - through the
love of Christ - is a sign of being the church.
But to be an evangelical, outreach centered church - to be a church that is more
concerned with those who have not yet walked through our doors - we need to move
from membership to discipleship. We need to move from counting nickels and noses
to a community that is transforming lives. We are called to be true and relevant
in a world that desperately needs what we have. And what we have is the
understanding that we are indeed saved by grace through faith and not by our
works or our finances or our jobs or any of the other things that the worlds
tells us will save us.
But this is an incredibly difficult situation to face when it feels like the
world is growing more complex and our congregations are shrinking. How can we
become more relevant to the world when it feels like we, as a church or as a
congregation, are getting smaller - or even dying? How can we think of others
when we are not sure of our own survival?
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The Great
Commission
Matthew
28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
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Click Here to go to the responses to Question 9
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And how can we make the changes we need to make
without feeling like we are rearranging the chairs on the Titanic?
The Great Commission - coupled with the Great Commandment - compel us to move
forward, to reach out to others. The world is a vastly different place than it
was when many of our congregations where born. It is even a vastly different
place than it was when the ELCA was born twenty years ago. If the church is to
be the voice and hands and feet of Christ in the world - world that today is
very different - how will we as a synod and a church adapt to be relevant?
The Great Commission and Great Commandment calls us, as a synod (i.e., a group
of congregations traveling together), to “reach out.” So how can we, as a synod,
equip ourselves, our synod staff, and our new bishop, to lead this journey into
this brave new world? This is a question that we must all be asking of
ourselves.
Pastor Rob Moore, Assistant to the Bishop/Mission Director
The questions for our conversation are:
How
do we, as a synod, move from membership to discipleship? How do we empower
our leaders, lay and ordained, to equip all our people to answer the call
to be evangelists?
Please send your comments and summary conclusions to:
transition@gulfcoastsynod.org.
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